Hello and welcome to montrealgazette.com and welcome to Midday. Here’s the rundown on some of the stories we’re following for you today.

Justin Bourque, the 24-year-old fugitive who announced “I’m done” when arrested early Friday in a resident’s dark backyard, will be formally charged later Friday in a Moncton courthouse. After three local RCMP officers were shot dead Wednesday evening followed by more than 24 hours of a massive manhunt in which parts of this city of 70,000 were in lockdown, police zeroed in on the unarmed Bourque and took him into custody. The resident in whose backyard the dramatic arrest took place said Bourque stated, “I’m done” when officers cornered him. At an early morning news conference Friday, spokespeople for RCMP New Brunswick said it was a “miracle” the ordeal ended with no further injury or death. Dead are David Ross, a 32-year-old dog handler with the force, who is expecting his second child with his wife, a nurse, in a few months, Fabrice Georges Gevaudan, 45, and Douglas James Larche, 40. Ross was from Victoriaville, Que. Gevaudan was from France, and Larche was from Saint John, NB. Two officers, Darlene Goguen and Eric Dubois, are recovering from their injuries.

Men who stormed Normandy’s shore 70 years ago joined world leaders Friday in paying tribute to the 150,000 Allied troops who risked and lost their lives in the D-Day landings in Nazi-occupied France, in a day of international commemorations of history’s biggest amphibious invasion. They are honouring the troops and civilians who fell in mighty battles that helped bring Europe peace and unity — just as bloodshed in Ukraine is posing new challenges to European security and threatening a new East-West divide. As the sun rose Friday over a gusty Omaha Beach, flags flew at half-staff. A U.S. military band played Taps, while D-Day veterans from the 29th Infantry Division and serving soldiers stood at attention at exactly 6:30 a.m., the moment on June 6, 1944, when Allied troops first waded ashore. “Twenty-nine, let’s go!” they shouted, then downed shots of Calvados, Normandy apple brandy. Hundreds of Normandy residents and other onlookers applauded the veterans, then began forming a human chain on the beach.

Premier Philippe Couillard says Quebec is like a family that has overextended itself financially and the bills have started to come in from the credit card company. One day after the Liberal government presented a budget setting in motion two years of lean times and a brake on spending, Couillard’s government was under attack from the opposition Parti Québécois and, to a lesser degree, the Coalition Avenir Québec. Meanwhile, a parliamentary quagmire has emerged which has the province’s interim auditor general on the hot seat, accused by the PQ of fulfilling a political mission for the Liberals to make them look bad. On Thursday the PQ refused to give its consent to a motion sponsored by the Coalition Avenir Québec reaffirming the National Assembly’s confidence in interim auditor Michel Samson. You can also listen to our podcast on what this provincial budget means to you.

Tanned and tired-looking, but still cheerfully chanting anti-pipeline slogans, a group of about 70 protesters marched to the Suncor oil refinery in east-end Montreal Thursday afternoon to take a stand against plans by two oil companies to pump oil from Alberta’s oilsands projects through Quebec. Some of the group have been walking since May 10 when the action, called Peoples for Mother Earth, began in Cacouna, a small town near Rivière-du-Loup, where TransCanada hopes to build a marine terminal and storage facility for its oil exports. TransCanada wants to bring 1.1 million barrels of crude oil per day from oilsands projects in Alberta and Saskatchewan to refineries in Quebec and New Brunswick. The marchers are also against Enbridge’s plan to expand its Line 9B pipeline, so that it can bring oilsands oil to the Suncor refinery in Montreal east and the Valéro refinery in Lévis, near Quebec City.

And finally, Montreal’s public health agency is giving drug users a good reason to Just Say No, as it issued a warning on Thursday about an alarming spike in the number of overdoses recently related to street-drug use. The Montreal Public Health Department is investigating 28 recent overdoses — including 15 deaths — which involved severe poisoning linked to street-drug use. So far it’s been mainly in the Montreal region, but it’s believed there have been cases in the Outaouais, Laval and the Laurentians as well. The number of deaths is at least three times higher than expected — and with Montreal gearing up for its annual party known as the Grand Prix, public health officials felt compelled to issue a warning about buying street drugs. “One in two of the overdoses resulted in death and that is very significant. These are very dangerous products,” said Richard Massé, director of the department. “One very worrying thing is that this is not just being caused by IV drugs, but by inhaling drugs. That’s a bit unusual.”

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